I provide commentary on political economy, police and prosecutorial abuse, and whatever else might come to mind.
Let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5:24 (ESV)

While the "fig leaf" of an excuse is that the director is paid $82,000, but does not work five days a week, in reality, the commission has been investigating a friend of Speaker of the House David Ralston, something Ralston denies has anything to do with his actions:

The budget dispute, Ralston said, has nothing to do with the commission’s pursuit of charges against former Superior Court Judge Harry Doss of Blue Ridge — a longtime friend of his.

Prosecution of Doss’s case is one of several delayed, perhaps indefinitely, by the JQC’s funding problems. He is charged with abusive behavior toward litigants and lawyers; intervening in matters outside his jurisdiction; taking months and sometimes years to make rulings; and buying laptops for his wife and son with public funds.

Doss resigned in December but refused the JQC’s request that he never seek judicial office again.

Ralston contacted Troutman Sanders last year looking for a lawyer to represent Doss. The speaker said he sought a referral because he didn’t have the expertise to handle a JQC matter.

So, in the name of "good government," the speaker is trying to gut a commission that actually engages in "good government" actions, but cannot do its job if the legislature further guts its funding. No doubt, Brian House is a happy camper.

[End Update]

[Update I, Thursday, June 3, 10:30 AM]: ABC's Nightline show last night had a segment on the Tonya Craft case, including an interview with her. As TV news stories go, it was pretty good, and it showed the segment during the trial in which Suzi Thorne allegedly committed perjury. (Not that she will be charged with the crime, given that the LMJC allows its own to commit felonies with impunity.)

I am glad they used that segment, as I still find it unbelievable that a person who is sworn to tell the truth can claim that she failed to memorialize what would have been the most important "disclosure" in the entire investigation: that the child of Sandra Lamb "just remembered" that Tonya Craft had penetrated her vagina with four fingers (and did not leave a mark -- an amazing feat of dexterity, should it have happened).

(I hope that future jurors reading this will take an extremely skeptical view when hearing testimony that is given by Ms. Thorne, Tim Deal, or anyone associated with the CAC or the Greenhouse, or testimony suborned by anyone from Buzz Franklin's office.)

[End Update]

As my researchers and I look over the huge amount of material from the Tonya Craft case, some things have become obvious:

There was no sexual abuse of any kind involving Tonya Craft and the children-accusers;

The "investigators" of the abuse from both the Catoosa County Sheriff's Department, the DA's office, and the Children's Advocacy Center and the Greenhouse understood early on that there was no abuse, and it was their job to manufacture false charges;

This was not the first time they had pulled off such a caper, but it was the first time that a defendant was able to put together a strong defense team to fight the charges.

I will be posting in the coming days on the actual children interviews, and why it is obvious that not only were the children "coached" by the "Team Perjury," but also other aspects of the case, such as some of the exculpatory evidence that "judge" Brian House ordered to be kept from the jury. Today, however, I want to briefly look at the case for disbarment for Chris Arnt and Len Gregor.

In examining the reasons I believe these men should be disbarred, I have gone through the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, and especially rules that pertain to prosecutors. Some of the rules, if broken, are punishable only by reprimand, but others specify that disbarment is a possibility. With that in mind, I want to look at just the rules for which violation can result in disbarment.

I wish to begin with Rule 8.4: Misconduct. The rule states:

(a) It shall be a violation of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to:

(1) violate or attempt to violate the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another;

(2) be convicted of a felony;

(3) be convicted of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude where the underlying conduct relates to the lawyer's fitness to practice law;

If a prosecutor violates Rule 8.4(a)(4), the maximum penalty is disbarment. Let me go on to look at Rule 3.3: Candor Toward the Tribunal. It states:

(a) A lawyer shall not knowingly:

(1) make a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal;

(2) fail to disclose a material fact to a tribunal when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by the client;

(3) fail to disclose to the tribunal legal authority in the controlling jurisdiction known to the lawyer to be directly adverse to the position of the client and not disclosed by opposing counsel; or

(4) offer evidence that the lawyer knows to be false. If a lawyer has offered material evidence and comes to know of its falsity, the lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures.

The next is Rule 3.4: Fairness to Opposing Party and Counsel:

A lawyer shall not:

(a) unlawfully obstruct another party's access to evidence or unlawfully alter, destroy or conceal a document or other material having potential evidentiary value. A lawyer shall not counsel or assist another person to do any such act;

(b) (1) falsify evidence;

(2) counsel or assist a witness to testify falsely;

The next is Rule 3.5: Impartiality and Decorum of the Tribunal:

A lawyer shall not, without regard to whether the lawyer represents a client in the matter:

(a) seek to influence a judge, juror, prospective juror or other official by means prohibited by law;

(b) communicate ex parte with such a person except as permitted by law; or

(c) engage in conduct intended to disrupt a tribunal.

The maximum penalty for a violation of part (a) of this Rule is disbarment. The maximum penalty for a violation of part (b) or part (c) of this Rule is a public reprimand.

In the May 17 complaint that Ms. Craft's attorneys sent to U.S. Attorney Sally Yates, the attorneys alleged a number of actions that would fit into the categories specified by the rules that would have disbarment as a remedy. Furthermore, there is ample evidence that Arnt and Gregor regularly suborned perjury, encouraged Sandra Lamb to break the law in refusing to accept a lawful subpoena delivered by Eric Echols, and sought to influence jurors and potential jurors by their public statements.

Furthermore, when Buzz Franklin issued his public statement attacking the jury three days after the verdict, he clearly was involved in an act of intimidation not only of those who served on the Craft jury, but also future jurors in child sexual abuse cases. There can be no other reason for his statement, which should be grounds for disbarment.

I do not believe that Arnt and Gregor actually believed Ms. Craft was guilty of the things for which she was charged. It is interesting that during the defense portion of the trial, neither Arnt nor Gregor ever asked one substantive question in their cross-examination of defense witnesses. Instead, they bullied them, screamed, called one of the most respected prosecution witnesses in Georgia, Dr. Nancy Aldridge, a "whore of the court" and a "liar," yet did not give one scintilla of evidence to demonstrate why all of the other prosecutors in Georgia who have used Dr. Aldridge as an expert witnesses have knowingly suborned false testimony. After all, if Dr. Aldridge lied during the Craft trial, then she would lie whenever she was on the witness stand.

Over the next several weeks, my researchers and I will be going over trial documents to verify the ways that Arnt and Gregor violated Bar rules. Furthermore, I believe that their conduct in the Eric Echols case has been so egregious that these prosecutors might even be more vulnerable there than they are as a result of their attempt to bring false charges against Ms. Craft.

While another prosecutor is scheduled to bring the case against Mr. Echols, my researchers and I will put together a set of documents to send to the State Bar which will implicate whomever attempts to gain a wrongful conviction of Mr. Echols. If is it someone other than Arnt or Gregor, then he also is going to have to defend himself before the State Bar.

There is no doubt that we will be sending the State Bar a number of documents in which we will allege the LMJC prosecutors have committed acts that so dishonor their office that disbarment is the only just remedy. If there really were any justice in Georgia, these men would be facing criminal charges, but the blanket immunity that prosecutors enjoy (no matter how egregious and criminal their actual conduct might be) makes their having to meet the bar of justice to be impossible.

53 comments:

Anonymous
said...

One thing i find quiet amusing is that Suzi thorne who is a known lesbian examines little children. Yet Brian House when allowing the prosecutors to accuse Tonya of being bi sexual stated that there is a link to a persons sexuality and child molestation....and it was also mentioned that child molesters work in places where they have access to children. Well according to team hags pedophile qualifications somebody best be looking at Suzi Thorne. As she would have a pedophiles dream job.....p.s. Thank you Mr. Anderson for being our voice..

Speaking of the lesbian/bisexual angle, I thought I'd share with you a part of an online conversation I had with a good friend of mine who is gay and happens to be in a committed (and officially sanctioned, by the state of Massachusetts) relationship with another man. Together they are raising a son.

"You know, that stereotype of gays being child molestors is so pathetic and wrong. If anything, I think the opposite stereotype is probably true(r): kids repel gay men faster than a moist [explicative].

When we had Alex, it was like poision to most of our friends. They stopped hanging out, coming over, anything to not be around him. Justin had some friends who basically turned their backs on the friendship as a result. No lie. Even my friends who wished us well, stopped hanging out with us as often."

So, folks, many gays and lesbians who are NOT inclined to cast a lustful glance towards minor children are so afraid of being associated with pedophilia that they will literally flee from children. How incredibly sad is that?

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Suzi Thorne, if she is indeed a lesbian, is more likely to molest a child than any of the rest of us. I would say, however, as Anon 12:34 pointed out, that her very involvement in this case cuts straight to the heart of the hypocracy that every, and I mean EVERY, person involved in prosecuting Tonya Craft has exhibited.

The thing to think about about the allegation of bisexuality is that it wasn't accompanied by any expert opinion that there is a relationship between bisex and crime. So the prosecution had no point whatsoever when they brought that up, they were literally wasting the court's time.

If they had believed the charges, they wouldn't have risked angering the jury with their time wasting porn drama.

I believe that the reason they made the allegation without any "expert" to back it up is because they knew that if they tried that kind of tripe that any expert who tried to support that argument would NEVER work again, and that every national media organization would be down their troat, and GLAAD and Lambda Legal would get more serving done than a Wimblton finalist. They were trying to walk a tightrope with their argument, and they knew that they were no Flying Wallendas, and if they tried to put anyone on their shoulders for that act, they'd end up going down without a safety net.

You know, folks, I was on the fence with whether to think Ms Craft guilty or not. I hadn't heard or seen the evidence yet, and so I couldn't say if there was enough to convict her or enough reasonable doubt. But, when they brought out the bisexual argument, that was the watershed moment of the trial for me. That was when bells and alarms started going off in my mind: "Why argue this point? If you have a slam-dunk case, you don't have to try to bring in homophobic rhetoric at all." That was the moment, and you can probably track this in my comments, when I started going from, "will there be reasonable doubt" to "WTF do these guys (prosecution) think they're doing? If she's guilty, you just screwed your argument by bringing this up." It was all down hill for them from that point. The more that came out, the more I realized these guys had not a clue what they were doing, and the only possible reason for making faulty logical assumptions, one after another, like this was if they knew they didn't have a case and were trying to play to possible hatreds within some jury members.

Here's a question to our friendly jury foreman. If you're still reading this and are willing to answer, please enlighten us as to how much contact you had with alternate jury members. I know one was dismissed for discussing the case with family members. Did you actually meet any of them? I'm wondering, with all the discussion of possible jury stacking during the case, did you notice any bias against Ms Craft by any jury alternates? Also, please let us know what you thought about or possibly discussed about the arguments the prosecution made, with regards to race and homosexuality. We can discuss this until we're blue in the face. I'd like to know if you noticed the faults in the arguments they made, and if so, whether that played any factor in your decision to find her not guilty.

I do believe that Dr. Lorandos and the Kings and Clancy as Tonya's defense team interested the news media. Except for the Parker trial, I haven't seen this much interest in a LMJC case since the judge from Atlanta (forget his name right now) brought his case up here for the guy convicted for hiring someone to kill his ex-wife in front of their kids. Even the publicity surrounding Tri-State pales in comparison to the ongoing interest in not only Tonya but others falsely charged (and some convicted) of child abuse/molestation. I do think Mr. Franklin's right on one point. Give me a chance before you jump down my throat. It is now more difficult for LMJC prosecutors to get easy convictions or plea deals in these cases. Too many people learned their lessons because of this case. The trouble with Mr. Franklin's logic is that it wasn't because of Tonya's Dream Team getting her off. This situation is because the rest of the world now knows what kind of untalented prosecutors we have in this area and that they'll do anything for a win, even desperately yank in whatever accusation they need to make their case no matter how unrelated it is. Thanks for this insight, Bill. Seeing these points brought out after the trial, after they intense minute by minute happenings from the trial, gives me a much better perspective.

The turning point for me was when Gregor started talking about the "conspiracy" theory. Then the comment about the hotel room having a "BED"! (gasp)It just seemed to me at this point he KNEW the case was doomed, and he was more concerned about HIS future and defending the states reputation, than to actually want Tonya found guilty.Between his lines I was hearing him say, "Look it was the parents & children that lied to us, so we were just doing our job..."After this I was hearing stuff that made me think they were actually wanting a mis-trial.

For whatever reason the jury seen thru all this.

Lets not forget that Tonya has the hearing next Monday with the Judge about the kids.I do pray and expect that something GREAT will happen at that hearing.

According to the LMCJ webpage, the cost for certified copies in Catoosa County has been lowered to $2.50 for the first page and $.50 for each additional page. I am not sure that applies to trial transcripts, but if so, It would make the transcript a bit more affordable.

Prosecutors don't really have blanket immunity. If they go outside the scope of their prosecutorial duties then they are vulnerable. Hence why Mike Nifong is on the list of defendants in the durham case. You forget the possible falsification of evidence. To wit, a police report magically appearing verifying what a child allegedly said off camera.

If this has already been discussed here, pardon me, but, I am curious about one thing. Why did Sandra Lamb have to be subpoenaed with regard to the civil case for Tonya's child custody? What was SL's involvement in the custody case? Would SL have been forced to testify that she was having an affair with Joel Henke at some point? (Which would have made it look like SL and JH conspired against Tonya in the criminal case.) If that wasn't the case, then why should she be "encouraged to break the law in refusing to accept a lawful subpoena"?

To 1:45, True, but remember that the NC Bar was drug kicking and screaming to discpline Nifong. It was only after people like Mr. Anderson and others made it BLATENTLY obvious he was a lying cheat that they took action.

I think that Miriam Boyd did that particular interview a few weeks ago and has done nothing in a while. She really is quite peripheral to the whole thing, and now that there is a lawsuit going, there is no way that the others are going to be openly interviewed. I'm sure that their attorneys have told them to make NO public comments whatsoever.

From what I can tell, Georgia is very unlikely to discipline anyone, although I agree that Arnt and Gregor, at least, should be disbarred. I certainly intend to make it a priority.

I think that is why so many people do not want the children to return to school.No one blame the children,most are very kind & respectful.It is the parents we no longer want,they are hard to deal with.Again we do not blame the children.The parents should have had better interest for their children.

I just read another prosecutor is bringing the case against Mr. Echols. I imagine we are within a month or so going to see an order of dismissal against him. Any prosecutor, rather ethical or not, will want to distant himself as far away as possible from the fallout over the Tonya Craft case.

Well, if that prosecutor wants to bring Mr. Echols to trial and to suborn perjury in the process, I will be quite happy to report him to the State Bar as well. If these people are hellbent on wrecking their careers, who am I to stand in their way?

Mr.Anderson,please tell us in North Ga what we can do.I feel so helpless,until voting time what can we do?I really feel the need to get up & do something.I'm just not sure what.Thank you for all of your hard work.

Mary Jane raises a valid question, the answer to which I have not yet seen. If Sandra and Joal were indeed having an affair, at any point, it didn't even need to be ongoing at the time, that blows a gap in both of their credibility through which one could drive a battleship.

It may not be that Ms Craft was arguing that there was an affair, it could merely been that she wanted Sandra to confirm that she and Joal had been calling each other an inordinant amount of time during the investigation, and wanted her to to testify as to what their conversations were, forcing her to admit what ammounts to conspiratorial actions by her and Joal. If she could show the judge, not that a conspiracy occurred, but that Joal acted in concert with another parent to bring about the charges against her (something which ammounts to a conspiracy--under most case law, a conspiracy doesn't necessarily have to be a stated, "Let's conspire against so-and-so," but can be a situation in which two people acted in concert to do something against a third party), then the judge would be more favorable towards Ms Craft.

This is what the strategy was at Ms Craft's trial. They never had to say "conspiracy" in order to use the argument that the parents conspired against her. I'm not a legal expert on this matter, but to my understanding, when two people discuss and then act out a plan to do something negative to a third person, that ammounts to a conspiring, whether an actual conspiracy is intended or not. This is one of the concepts used to prosecute members of organized crime.

Well not really evil. At least no more evil then those back in the day thought they was really burning witches. It was the prosecutor's and judge job to make sure the checks and balances of our justice system was functioning not gathering of the ol' firewood.

Bill, I saw the article in AJC near the end of the trial about the cut in funding for the JQC and thought it a political move of punishment rather than the stated reasons. The woman running JQC responded by showing how she could only work part time, along with her assistant. However, their current funding under the scaled back budget leaves them unable to pay rent and utilities let alone have anything left to investigate. Sure makes me, and I'm sure others, wonder why our elected representatives don't want judges investigated. That's the way it looks to me.

liberranter said... If there really were any justice in Georgia, these men would be facing criminal charges...

Big, BIG if, Bill, a supposition not supported by any visible evidence.

June 3, 2010 7:23 PM

I saw evidence that should see them called in front of the bar to answer for their criminal-like behavior in bringing charges.

Criminal charges w/jail time ? Maybe not.

Disbarment?I believe it's deserved.They tried to send someone to prison, possibly for life, based upon what a layman could see was flimsy, fabricated evidence and expert testimony from persons who played the LMJD "expert act" on a routine basis. These two attorneys had used these foolish people associated with the CAC to pad their resumes for God knows how many years.

Last week KathyR said of course the children are welcome.No one has a problem with the kids,we are just so tired of the parents.unfortunately if we have the kids we get the not so lovely parents.So many do not want them because of the parents.Of course the Wilsons & Boyds will never leave.

I went to see Scott King today about my case. He told me that I could Quote hIm on my comments tonight,Scott says," Thanks to everyone who has stood behind Tonya and Her Team here on this site." Some of you know what he thinks of you and I will not comment on the names. Scott does read this site and the post.

I think these guys are great lawyers and good MEN. They have HONOR and I respect that. I Thank them for looking at my case.

Sorry I can't name... names but you know who you are, who worked behind the seens to see the truth got out.

MR. Anderson thanks to you and those who work with you to see justice somehow gets done. We have a long way to go and alot to do. So, please dont stop now the fight has only begun.

Bullying and screaming at witnesses is what a trial lawyer will do if he doesn't have the facts on his side. By the way, I've seen criminal defense attorneys do this FAR more (for obvious reasons) than prosecutors. I saw a defense attorney scream and yell while cross-examining at a certain high-profile murder trail in Knoxville, Tennessee I attended a few weeks ago.

LOL Lame! Good one. Idk why people feel the need to attack you personally. I just drive by their comments & laugh at their ignorance. You seem like a nice guy, a bit talkative, but nice. :-)

Btw, to whoever posted the crap about him being out of work, look at the national & state statistics for unemployment. My husband & I both are currently unemployed. Highly educated & in my field, am a person who is very sought after. Unfortunately, the economy is dictating our time for now. My husband has terminal cancer & this is the first time he's been unemployed, me too for that matter. So your little argument of "who would want a 30 something with no job"..... apparently I would. Funny thing is, we still live better than that dbag does. No, not off the government, it's called savings & budgeting.

Sorry I went off subject!! Lame, keep on keeping on & definitely keep the quips coming. :-)

As for being out of work, there are a lot of teachers who have been layed off lately. I have a relative who lives in the Gainesville, Florida area who is married with two children and a third on the way. He and his wife are both teachers, and they both got their pink slips on the same day last month.

I believe it. My father & FIL are both educators, my father was given his walking papers & my FIL was too, only to have them withdrawn a week later. He's old enough to retire & really doesn't need the job (this is where my hubby gets his money management skills), but he wanted to be able to retire at 67, it was his plan. Georgia is making cuts left & right, but even worse is across the line in Chattanooga/Hamilton County. Their teachers are highly underpaid & they have virtually no funding for anything. It is very sad because it all comes down to proper budgeting. I noticed things going to hell in a handbasket when the schools started implementing the "character" teachings. This happened to coincide with the removal of corporal punishment. The "feel good" character teachings took up a chunk of budgets all over the country & honestly, they weren't teaching anything that wasn't already implemented in the classroom. Instead, dollar after dollar was sucked into a program which truly offered nothing more than awards for children behaving as they should have in the first place. In today's society, I wouldn't want to be a teacher. You must walk on egg shells & you literally have zero control over students, especially male teachers. I have many friends & relatives who are male teachers & want to do good by these children, but their hands are tied & they must conform to the "oh we can't spank children" & "they just want to be heard" bull crap that has been forced down our throats for almost 20 years. Hate to say it, but there are very few children who would have made it through school if they went through the system that I did 20 years ago. They would crumble & cry.

KC Sprayberry, It was Fred Tokars that brought so much national attention to North Georgia back in the 90's for hiring someone to kill his wife. Apparently, she knew to much about his dirty dealings and he wanted her gone. I think he was a judge in Atlanta. What is it with judges in GA???

About Me

I teach economics at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland. We are located on the Allegheny Plateau, and we have cool summers and tough winters.
I am the single father of five children, four of them adopted from overseas and I have two grandchildren. My family and I are members of Faith Presbyterian Church (PCA).